Hi. I just got a new phone (Motorola) and spent a bunch of time manually removing access to location etc. I hate Google so much, “don’t do evil” my ass. I’m just looking for my blindspots. Im not in tech so, what should be disabled to keep my phone private?
Here’s what I’ve done:
,to get to settings, then click “Privacy”) or switch to HeliBoardStuff I haven’t done yet but probably will eventually:
I haven’t looked for good alternatives for these yet so if anyone has suggestions, I’m listening!
The launcher is just an app, but the way it’s set up ensures that different launcher apps cannot offer the same experience as the stock one.
Rabbit hole I dove into trying to figure out why my back to homepage didn’t feel snappy (like the swipe up animation goes and only after it’s done the icons load). Turns out that’s pretty much intentional and the solution is rooting your phone.
Kvaesitso and Lawnchair are launchers that get recommended a lot. I prefer LaunchTime. Unexpected Keyboard is my favorite, minimalist but great. All of these are on F-Droid,
I use Neo Launcher. It’s as close to Nova as I’ve been able to find. It hasn’t been updated in years but I have had no issues with it.
Later Android versions also let you set a custom DNS in settings, so you can have DNS level traffic filtering without an app that does it via local VPN.
Big fan of HeliBoard
Typing this out using HeliBoard now. So far so good, thanks!🔥
It works well with the additional Swipe library, too (which is unfortunately not a FOSS library).
Why Heliboard over FUTO Keyboard? FUTO makes Immich too.
I used to use FUTO keyboard but I know they had some weird controversies about licensing and such so I figured the safer move would be HeliBoard. FUTO was nice too though
I dont think we are ever going to see a third consumer level production phone with an alternative Linux based OS. There aren’t enough people out there in the main stream to make a product like this truly viable. Maybe Fairphone or a equivalent. But that’s a tall maybe. Definitely not a flagship level phone.
What’s more realistic is seeing graphine gain availability on more devices.
This is the one place I haven’t taken the plunge. My experience with Linux desktops over the years leaves me a little concerned being stuck without making calls in an emergency situation. I’m also using MVNOs and I worry they won’t be compatible with a different OS.
Is anyone actually working on that?
postmarketOS, Mobian, Ubuntu Touch, and Mobile NixOS all seem to have recent activity.
As for hardware, although the PinePhone Pro got lukewarm reviews, maybe they’ll iterate and get better or at least prove to other companies that there’s a demand for Linux phones.
I’m hopeful there’ll be at least one usable option within 5 years or so. And if not, I’ll be sticking with GrapheneOS.